The inventive disclosure described herein relates to a semiconductor memory and a memory system including the semiconductor memory.
A semiconductor memory device is a memory device which is fabricated using semiconductors such as silicon (Si), germanium (Ge), gallium arsenide (GaAs), indium phosphide (InP), and the like. Semiconductor memory devices are generally classified into volatile and nonvolatile memory devices.
Volatile memory devices may lose stored contents at power-off. Types of volatile memory devices include static RAM (SRAM), dynamic RAM (DRAM), synchronous DRAM (SDRAM), and the like. Nonvolatile memory devices may retain stored contents even at power-off. Types of nonvolatile memory devices include read only memory (ROM), programmable ROM (PROM), electrically programmable ROM (EPROM), electrically erasable and programmable ROM (EEPROM), flash memory devices, phase-change RAM (PRAM), magnetic RAM (MRAM), resistive RAM (RRAM), ferroelectric RAM (FRAM), and the like.
As semiconductor fabricating processes have developed, semiconductor devices may be scaled down. In particular, semiconductor memory cells may be scaled down. Scaling down of semiconductor memory cells may result in various phenomena negatively affecting the device. For example, phenomena associated with scaling down semiconductor memory cells may cause destruction of data stored therein. This may lower the reliability of a semiconductor memory. Thus, there are benefits to providing improved semiconductor memory devices and memory systems that include semiconductor memory that reduce problems associated with such phenomena.